4886 
THE AURAL NEW-YORKER 
709 
{* l)C ■Jpmiflrt. 
INVERTING THE BROOD NEST. 
PROF. A. J. COOK. 
Inverting hives; new Hedden hive; the 
Shuck hive: advantages of inverting; in- 
vertable hives and reversible frames con¬ 
trasted. 
One of the late innovations in bee keeping 
which has gained favor so rapidly that we 
must think it has come to stay, is that of in¬ 
verting the frames or hives. In either case 
the brood nest is turned up-side down. This 
was first accomplished by so arranging the 
frames that they could be readily inverted. 
Instead of the old Langstroth frame with its 
single top-bar, which had projecting ends, a 
perfect rectangular frame, with no projecting 
bars, was made to swing in a larger frame 
with projecting top liar and end bars which 
reached a little below the middle point of the 
end bars of the Inner rectangular frame. By 
use of wire nails the inner frame is pivoted 
to the outer half frame, so it cau swing in and 
be iuverted in a moment at any time. I have 
used these frames now for two years, and like 
them so well that I am changing all my combs 
into these reversible frames. 
Within the last two years an attempt has 
beeu made to improve upon tliis plan by in¬ 
verting the* entire hive. The new Hedden 
hive, which has caused more stir among bee¬ 
keepers than any other recent invention, is 
invert a hive takes a moment; to reverse all 
the frames is the work of several minutes. 
The object of the horizontal division of the 
brood chamber in the Heddou hive and also 
the advantages of the slatted queen-excluding 
honey board, and bee-spaces are marked and 
are worthy a separate consideration which 
they shall receive in another article. 
Agr’l College, Lansing, Mich. 
iUbcclUnu'oits. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. 
LXVII. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
The Tehachapi Pass; an inquisitive custom; 
Mojave Junction; flowers in a desert; an 
arid lake; alkaline sea beds; Barstow; a 
cheerless home; the “Great American 
Tree' 1 ; a desolate wilderness; in Arizona. 
We left Tulare at two the next morning, 
and it was full day-light as we approached 
the Tehachapi Pass. A very important feat 
of railway engineering was accomplished in 
building the road through this spur of the 
Sierra. The Pass is 27 miles in length. There 
are 17 tunnels, and from three to four hours 
are consumed in the transit. It is the custom 
on the transcontinental lines ou the Pacific 
Slope for a man to pass through the trains 
every day at certain points, ask passengers 
their names, where they are from, and where 
such as were selling in San Francisco and Los 
Angeles for 15 cents per dozen. 
The station at Mojave Junction is in the 
midst of what goes by the name of the Mojave 
desert—a desert from lack of water, but at 
this time it was gorgeous with flowers, and 
one could but wonder how the pretty things 
had the courage to live and bloom in that dry, 
sandy, treeless, almost rainless regiou. I 
picked three varieties of phacelia, John’swort, 
large anl beautiful, a curious cruciferous 
plant, the gorgeous flowers set at regular in¬ 
tervals on large, canary-yellow stalks that 
were hollow and shaped like kelp bladders— 
also a variety of collonta, very beautiful. But 
one station east of Mojave every flower and 
sign of vegetation completely and suddenly 
disappeared, and we were launched (on wheels) 
on a dry alkali lake 2,100 feet above the sea 
level. This lake, was six miles wide and prob¬ 
ably four times as long. The train was stopped 
owing to a hot box, and we got out and took a 
promenade on this extinct sea—a strange and 
wierd sensation! Some sage brush grew in 
the sand dunes on the shore of this lake-bed 
which was as level as a house floor, and the 
conductor said that he had once seen the bed 
flooded by a cloud burst. It is very generally 
understood, I suppose, that all these interior 
alkali basins, and, in fact, most of these and 
and desert regions were once under water, 
which has gradually evaporated, leaving its 
immense deposits of salts. 
At Barstow we crossed the Mojave River, a 
slender stream. At this point the desert plain 
is broken by hills, and an occasional team of 
horses with a driver indicated the possibility 
away and shaping the mountains was very 
noticeable, and the forms produced by water 
sculpture have a peculiar beauty. Among 
the passengers was a man in blue overalls, 
whose talk could be heard from one end of a 
car to the other. He was 50 years old and this 
was his first ride in a steam ear. He lived in 
Los Angeles and had crossed the “plains” with 
an ox team years before. Empty tin cans were 
scattered iu profusion along the way, and at 
times we actually descried cattle with their 
noses to the ground apparently feeding on im¬ 
perceptible grass, dry. brown, like threads as 
it was. The next morning at 5.45 we alighted 
at Peach Spring, in Arizona. 
Pom.o logical. 
THE TYSON AND SOME OTHER PEARS. 
I notice in the Rural some dispute as to 
the qualities of the Tyson Pear. It is not a 
tardy bearer unless under conditions that will 
render most of our pears equally tardy. There 
are a few varieties, like Belle Lucrative, that 
are inclined to bear and overbear at a very 
early age and under almost all conditions; but 
most pears need special attention to a few 
poiuts. 1. A pear tree that limbs out near the 
ground, say two or 21 * feet, will bear four or 
five years earlier from the nursery than one 
that branches only at seven or eight feet. 
This is so peculiarly true that when setting an 
orchard I have made special arrangements 
with nurserymen to furnish trees headed low. 
about the' size of the common 
.Langstroth hive, and consists of 
two horizontal sections, which can 
be used either independently or 
together. Thus it will he seen 
that the frames in this ll've are 
only about half as deep as those 
of the usual Langstroth. These 
frames have close-fitting end bars, 
and when put into the hives rest 
on tin projections, which are tack¬ 
ed to the bottom of the end boards 
of the hive. When all the frames 
are put into the hives, a wooden 
thumb screw which is set in the 
side board of the hive opposite the 
end bars of the frames, is screwed 
up. This holds all the frames 
firmly, and so when these screws 
are thus turned the frames are all 
held securely and the entire hive 
can be turned bottom up iu a mo¬ 
ment. 
The Shuck hive which, like the 
Heddou, is patented, can also be 
inverted in a moment. This hive 
is full size, aud is inverted by a 
sort of a derrick. I have both 
hives iu our College Apiary. Both 
are practical, but from its severe 
simplicity I much prefer the Hed- 
don. Perhaps, with longer ex¬ 
perience,! might change my views. 
The advantages of inverting are 
these: 1st, coiuhs are built and 
fastened to the frame on all sides. 
GUERNSEY HEIFER ENID 353. Fig. 399. Re-engraved from the London Live Stock Journal. (See p. 702.) 
The Tyson does not .differ from 
the Bartlett, Sheldon, Anjou, and 
others in this respect. Standard 
trees will bear as early as dwarfs 
and as profusely if treated in the 
same manner. 2. Pear trees vary 
in habit on different soils. I do 
not know that any rule, however, 
as to early bearing holds good ex¬ 
cept the above. 
The Tyson, in my judgment, is 
the very best of our early pears. 
With me it has borne very early 
and verv profusely. Its habit of 
growth is good, and the pear, while 
not showy, is marketable. It 
ranks among early pears where 
Sheldon and Seekel rank among 
later summer pears; and where 
Anjou stands among late autumn 
peal's—among the best 10 of all 
varieties. Rostiezer, which the 
Rcral commends, is so straggling 
a grower and yields, although pro¬ 
fusely to a branch, vet so small a 
quantity to a tree that it is un¬ 
profitable. Clapp’s Favorite and 
Belle Lucrative are among the 
worst of pears to blight. Made¬ 
line is hopelessly given over to the 
same trouble. e. p. powell. 
Varions. 
Every bee-keeper knows that bees 
always fasten combs firmly at top and along 
the upper half of the edges. When this is 
once done we have only to remove the frames, 
when the union is made complete about the 
whole margin of the comb. The advantages 
of such entire union are, first, the combs are 
held securely aud are in no danger of falling 
out when extracting or shipping bees. 
Second, the spaces between comb and frame 
which serve as hiding places for queens are 
removed. This last is a great gain, us any 
one who has sought for queens is aware. 
Third, reversing frames places the honey 
below the brood, which is unnatural. Hence 
if just as the season opens, when we place our 
sections on (he hive, we reverse the frames, 
the bees at once fall to and carry the honey 
above the brood, or into the sections where 
we wish it. and once employed in filling the 
sections they make no halt till the season 
closes. If, when we reverse we uncap some of 
the honey, we will hasten this rush to the sec¬ 
tions. Many who have been annoyed at the 
persistent refusal of their bees to work iu sec¬ 
tions will appreciate this argument in favor 
of reversible frames, though to the expert 
apiarist this is the weakest argument of the 
three. 
Fourth, when a bee-keeper has all the bees 
he wishes he oou preclude swarming by this 
simple work of inversion, which in case the 
hive is reversible is but the work of a moment. 
Curious as it may seem, the bees at once cut 
away or remove ull queen cells ns soou us the 
combs are turned upside down. Thus by iu- 
vertiug the hives each week swarming is pre¬ 
vented, aud all but the work of a moment. 
Of course, this last, indeed all the points ar¬ 
gue loudly iu favor of the reversible hive. To 
they are going, and write thei replies in a 
book which he carries. The result of tliis in¬ 
vestigation is that the uames, etc,, are for¬ 
warded by telegraph to the San Francisco and 
Portland newspapers, so that the readers of 
them who are iu the habit of looking over the 
list of expected arrivals, if they come upon 
the name of a friend, often pleasantly surprise 
him by extending a welcoming hand at the 
station or wharf, explaining. “Why I saw 
your name iu the paper, and that you would 
arrive in this train. ” Tehachapi is one of the 
places where the names are taken iu the north¬ 
bound train. The slow movement of the cure 
through this pass, aud the alertness of the pas- 
sengers to see the construction of the road, 
oblige the busy trainman who sells books, 
papers, etc., in the cure, to take a rest and re¬ 
arrange his wares. I asked one of them before 
reaching Tulare what were his daily profits. 
He answered the question by saying his aver¬ 
age daily sales, including literature, fruit, ami 
cigars, amounting to *50. 
Between Tehachapi (pronounced Te-hash-a- 
pee) Pass and Mojave (Mohdve) Junction, a 
ride of an hour or so f the road lay through 
orchards of yucca, the trees beiug from six to 
15 feet iu bight, ami lookiug very odd and 
lonesome in their arid and deserted surround¬ 
ings. At, Mojave wo had breakfast, aud as we 
here left the Southern Pacific Road for the 
Atlantic and Pacific, over which we were to 
travel several hundred miles into Arizona to 
the Grand Canon of the Colorado, we had a 
wait of an hour or so. The delay gave us time 
to replenish our luucli basket (a necessity ou 
all hues of travel) aud for two small loaves of 
bread we paid 25 ceuts. The traiu-mau 
charged the same for half a dozen oranges, 
of animal existence in that regiou. At Bar¬ 
stow the Southern California Railroad begins, 
which runs to San Diego, and the railway com¬ 
pany has here built an attractive eating and 
lodging house. We waited here three aud a 
half mortal hours for the overland train from 
Levs Angeles. My heart ached for the few fam¬ 
ilies placed in the forlorn wooden shanties 
planted about the station. A terrible place 
for women aud children to pass their lives, 
hearing the wind forever blowing over the 
desert. Some cottonwood trees had been 
planted along the stream aud were growing 
well. This beautiful, brave tree glows from 
coast to coast aud spreads its grateful shade 
where nothing else will thrive. To my luiml 
it is the Great American Tree, and I always 
feel like taking off my hat to it, particularly 
when it condescends to grow iu a wind-and- 
sand-swept tow n of the desert. 
As we rode on, the San Francisco Mountains 
came into view and bounded the desert ou the 
north. East of a station called Newhall, we 
passed a large crater in ruins—two miles per¬ 
haps in diameter, some portions of the black¬ 
ened walls a hundred feet high. To the north 
lay what is called Death’s Valley,and the train 
skirted this dismal and foreboding region. 
At intervals all of that day our eyes were 
gladdened with beautiful flowers,specimens of 
which we were always enabled to obtain, and 
with the aid of a small California Botany 
(Rattan’s) which T carried, we found out the 
names of most of them. The conductor aud 
one of the brakemen became interested iu our 
flower gathering, aud brought me several 
beautiful speeimeus,among which were abrouia 
aud superb ceuothera—w'hite. Iu various 
places the action of the water in wearing 
5 At French poultry shows it is 
said that the dressed birds always attract at¬ 
tention. The birds are killed and dressed and 
exposed in neat glass cases. Everything is so 
neat and dainty that this exhibition forms one 
of the best features of the show. Why’is this 
not a good plani At our shows we exhibit the 
live birds at all ages aud their eggs. It. would 
surely add to the interest .if specimens'of the 
different breeds could be shown without their 
feathers. Why not make a class for dressed 
poultry ! Make out a 1 scale of points" so that 
the pci-ventage of offal, of breast-meat, of neck, 
&c. can be obtained. Who will bejhe first to 
(»ut this idea intopraetice? 
Flesh of Diseased Poultry —The meat 
of diseased animals is condemned as unfit for 
human food. This is right, but why not in¬ 
clude the flesh of fowls suffering from chicken 
cholera) It cannot be other than injurious to 
take cholera germs into the system. We know 
families whose rule is to kill all “droopy” fowls 
for use on the table. Many birds sick with the 
cholera are killed and eaten in this way. A 
more disgusting practice it is hard to think of. 
Eggs or flesh from flocks where cholera is prev¬ 
alent should never be taken into the stomach. 
We hope to have a law some day that will 
stamp out cholera as well as cattle disease. 
House the Mangels.— It is high time the 
mangels were housed iu all the Northern States. 
After the 15th of October a frost may occur at 
any time sufficiently severe to cause the skin to 
peel from them, aud this will seriously'iujure 
their keepiug qualities. They should be pulled 
on dry days; the tops be removed, and they 
should be at ouce stored in cellars or pits aud 
be well ventilated until they are fully dried. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. j. s. w. 
